Parenting

Full of helpful advice for families starting to think about their child's bat or bar mitzvah, Bar & Bat Mitzvah For The Interfaith Family will be a helpful primer to all families (not just interfaith!).

Hanukkah Booklet

This booklet explains the history of Hanukkah, the symbolism and significance of lighting candles for eight nights, the blessings that accompany the lighting of the candles, the holiday's foods, the game of dreidels, and more!

Organizations

Connecting Interfaith Families to Jewish Life in Greater Cleveland by providing programs and opportunities for interfaith families to experience Judaism in a variety of venues, meet other interfaith families, and to connect to other Jewish organizations that may serve their needs.

For Program Providers

A great way for Jewish professionals and volunteers who work with and provide programming for people in interfaith relationships to locate resources and trainings to build more welcome into their Jewish communities; connect with and learn from each other; and publicize and enhance their programs and services.

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There’ll Be No Chrismukkah This Year

CNN.com reports that Fox has canceled “The O.C.,” a show that only a few years ago was one of the most popular and trend-setting shows among young adults. “The O.C.” featured an interfaith family at its center, with Peter Gallagher as Jewish lawyer Sandy Cohen, Kelly Rowan as his non-Jewish wife Kirsten and Adam Brody as their neurotic son Seth. Addictively entertaining in its first season and a half, the quality of the show has suffered precipitously in recent years as they’ve resorted to ever more outlandish plot twists (Ryan’s part of a fight club? Marissa has a lesbian affair?) to juice the ratings.

From IFF’s perspective, the show’s creator, Josh Schwartz, missed a golden opportunity to depict an interfaith family sensitively and intelligently; instead, Seth invented “Chrismukkah,” a blended mock-holiday that diluted and distorted both Judaism and Christianity. Ever since the December 2004 episode that unveiled Chrismukkah, the secular media has had a field day with the notion that people are increasingly celebrating a blended version of the holidays, but Schwartz’s portrayal of the Cohens was not a reflection of reality. There is little evidence that interfaith families are blending the two holidays. Even among those families that practice little or no religion, there is no evidence that they’re celebrating some mishmash of Hanukkah and Christmas. Indeed, if you read the voluminous number of stories on Chrismukkah that come out every year, you’ll find that most reporters were unable to find even a single family that was blending the two holidays.